Increased Public Debate Programme (Ipd) Sponsored By Usaid Through Pact Zambia And The Irish Embassy
Brief Write Up On The Public Debates On The Transparency, Accountability And Effectiveness Of Local Authorities In Zambia
The programme on the operations of local Government is part of the broader efforts of TI-Z to contribute to the strengthening of laws and institutional arrangements established to promote transparency and accountability in governance structures in order to fight corruption and promote good governance.
TI Zambia to date has undertaken various researches on the operations of various watchdog institutions, both government and non- governmental, with the aim of making recommendations on how they can be made more effective in the promotion of transparency and accountability.
TI-Z's contribution to the problems being faced by Local Authorities therefore, is to suggest ways of strengthening them and these efforts should been seen in the context of the growing world wide understanding that devolution of power to lower organs, in this case, Local Government, increases the democratic participation of people, in both administrative and Governance issues. This ultimately promotes effective service delivery of basic social services to the people and reduces poverty because the people have a say in the decision making process.
TI-Z, just to illustrate its efforts to address problems being faced by local authorities, has carried out a number of activities that aimed at highlighting the effectiveness, transparency and accountability of Local Authorities.
The ultimate aim of these activities was to gather information from the public, local Authorities and other stakeholders on the operations of these local authorities and make recommendations on how best the Local Government policy can be improved to create more effective Local Authorities. The activities were also aimed at facilitating public participation in the Democratic Governance process, and Local Authorities in particular.
Among the activities that TI-Z has carried out were, a Research on local Authorities, whose findings propose that there is need for decentralization and the form of decentralization to be undertaken should be that of devolution of power to lower organs which entails the transfer of powers from central government to lower organs that would then be tasked with resource distribution and the administrative staff thus accountable to locally elected political leadership.
 TI-Z also conducted an opinion poll survey with an aim of assessing the perceptions of the public on the operations of the local authorities and their view on what measures and reforms need to be undertaken. The survey covered two provinces that is Lusaka and Eastern, the specific towns being Lusaka, Chongwe, Chipata and Petauke. The findings of this opinion poll also brought out the need for reform and the kind of reform that would allow for more community participation especially in terms of planning, implementation and resource allocation. The survey showed that when it comes to mobilizing of resources for the local authority, the community would be actively involved, but the problem only sets in the implementation and planning process.
A series of TV and Radio programmes were aired on ZNBC radio two and TV, on which a diverse range of issues centered on the operations of Local Authorities were discussed and views and opinions gathered. These programmes saw the participation of a cross section of members of the public, including those in Government.
Some of the general conclusions drawn from these programmes were those of de-linking Local Authorities from Central Government and the need to put in place systems that will allow for greater public participation.
In summary the, the findings here also point out to policy reform that would take into consideration all the pointed out weaknesses of the laws that govern operations of Local Authorities and the weak institutional structures.
Public Discussion forums were held throughout the provincial centers, around the country and these discussion forums provided a platform at which the members of the public had an opportunity to interact and discuss issues with their local authorities, as well as their representatives from Government and make recommendations on the way forward for their communities.
A summary of the findings showed brought out similar observations and recommendations as those pointed out in the other activities conducted. Running concurrently with these public discussion forums were drama performances, that aimed to sensitize communities on what they should expect from their local authorities and some of the problems faced by these wings. Recommendations, from the various activities have been compiled and are in the process of being finalized to be presented to Government.
The Minister of local Government, while opening one of the discussions made a commitment, on behalf of Government to receive and take into account the recommendations.
A full report of highlighting the recommendations to be presented to Government will be posted on the website as soon as they are ready. |
